Fonds Pacifique Water Governance Project: Participatory methods training workshop

A one-day methods training workshop will be held in ANU Centre for European Studies on the 9th of June 2015, from 9:30am to 5pm. The workshop will introduce a range of participatory tools and how they can be used by people involved in water governance and natural resources management including government officials and researchers.

The tools presented are part of a set of participatory tools, called CoOPLAaGE, developed by researchers from IRSTEA G-Eau and CIRAD in France and experimented with practitioners and researchers from the ANU and other organisations.

CoOPLAaGE is an integrated set of participatory methods, tools and protocols designed to support stakeholders, from citizens to policy makers, to discuss, negotiate and engage meaningfully in change strategies in socio-environmental systems. The toolkit includes tools to design an acceptable decision procedure, jointly model a situation, frame shared social justice principles, simulate change pathways (role playing games), build coherent action plans, evaluate the process and outcomes, and implement decisions and actions.

At the end of the workshop, participants are expected to have an overview of participatory tools which they may develop, use and facilitate independently with stakeholders at all levels—from water users to high-level policy makers—in collaboratively developing and implementing action plans and change strategies.

The workshop will be highly interactive and illustrated with examples of existing cases and games. It is offered as part of a Fonds Paci! que Water Governance project , which is focusing on water management case studies across Oceania countries (including Australia), with an aim of scoping out opportunities for mobilizing institutional actors and policy-makers in improving water governance.

Financial and in-kind support for this workshop is gratefully acknowledged, including from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the ANU Centre for European Studies and IRSTEA, France.